And saw a man leaving Neil’s room, carrying a box.
“Son of a bitch.” Her hand unconsciously formed a fist, the metal cuff around her wrist melting, slipping through her fingers to solidify into a black blade. The relic was a magical weapon said to be able to kill anything.
She ran, then dropped and slid, taking the guy out at the knees. The box hit the floor with a crash, and barely missed crushing her. She twisted and brought up her weapon, resting it against his neck when he tried to sit. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The guy reached for the weapon at his side but froze when her blade touched his neck. “Ahhh—”
She pressed the blade harder, stopping just short of drawing blood. “We don’t steal from the dead.”
“Neil was a traitor. His stuff should’ve been cleared out and burned long ago for disgracing our family name.”
Morgan turned to see a young woman standing in Neil’s doorway, her long black hair stretching down her back, her pale skin flawless, her beauty stunning if not for her hard, dark eyes. “Now either let my brother up or kill him.”
She turned away, vanishing back into the room without another word.
Morgan lifted the blade and registered that while the kid was large, he was young. She released her hold on the blade, and the metal melted down, snaking up her arm to re-form into a decorative black cuff, and hastily got to her feet. “Sorry.”
“You’re Morgan.” The kid didn’t move. “He talked about you. He said you were different.”
Morgan blinked, not sure she liked having people talk about her.
When she didn’t say anything, he carefully got to his feet, never removing his gaze from hers, as if she was a predator and not a person…which might not be too far from the truth most days. By the time he straightened, she was surprised to find him towering over her.
“I’m his brother, Kalvin.”
When he thrust out his hand, Morgan ignored it, unwilling to touch a stranger. She cocked her head and studied him. “While you have a bit of magic, you’re not like Neil.”
“No, I’m not dying. My magic is dormant.” He dropped his hand and gave her a crooked smile, and she saw the resemblance to Neil for the first time, and pain lanced through her chest sharper than any blade.
He was what Neil would’ve looked like if he’d been healthy and not eaten up and driven insane by magic. Kalvin’s brown hair was thick, with a touch of wave, his brown eyes bright rather than dulled by pain, his body filled out, almost brawny if he ever grew into his large, bony shoulders, nothing like the sharp elbows and angles of Neil’s skinny form. Where Neil’s eyes teemed with secrets and intelligence, Kalvin’s were full of hope and promise.
No cynicism.
No desperation.
Tears burned at the back of her throat at what might have been had she noticed Neil was in trouble sooner, if she’d realized her magic could have saved him.
Morgan stooped and began shoving the fallen items haphazardly back into the box, her hands shaking when she came across Neil’s glasses, and tears threatened to fall. “He wasn’t a bad man, he was just scared and afraid to die.”
Kalvin crouched in front of her, avoiding her eyes as he plunked the rest of the objects in the box. “You’re the only one who has anything kind to say about him. The family won’t even speak his name.”
“I miss him.”
Kalvin exhaled loudly, his voice only a breath of air. “Me, too.”
“Don’t let them erase him. He might have been misguided, but he gave the last minutes of his life to save mine.” Morgan glanced up at him, then held the glasses out to him. When he touched them, she felt something stir in her bones, a warmth that startled her.
The runes on her back remained cold, a dead weight against her skin, the magic having sunk into her blood and bones after the ritual Neil gave his life to save her from.
Since then, the magic had never returned to the runes.
She wasn’t sure what the warmth meant, other than that Kalvin was important.
“Keep them.”
She was startled out of her thoughts when he shoved the glasses back at her. Her hands automatically closed around the frames, and she held them to her chest.
“Maybe between the two of us he won’t be forgotten.”
A box thunked to the ground behind them. “Get moving, Kalvin. I want to get out of here by the end of the hour.” She marched down the hall without another word, the bitch too much of a princess to even bother carrying a box.
“Ignore Olivia. She hated Neil since the day they were born, blaming him for taking the magic that should’ve been hers.”
Morgan swung around to watch him lift the box and add it to the others. “What do you mean?”
“He didn’t tell you?” Kalvin blinked at her, then shook his head. “Of course not. They were twins. She resented him from the moment he first drew breath. He stole her birthright. Her magic. Her admission to the Academy. She never forgave him. The last thing he did was take the only thing left to her by tarnishing the Delany name.”
“No doubt she made his life hell.” She didn’t have to guess. She followed Kalvin into the room, carefully pocketing the glasses, saddened to see the dorm room stripped bare, Neil’s life obliterated in a couple of hours.
“You have no idea.” He heaved a sigh and picked up the last two boxes. “At least he got to escape.”
Morgan watched him walk out of the room and felt bad for the kid. She followed him out into the hall. “Is there no escape for you?”
He stiffened at her question, peered at her before quickly dropping his gaze. “I don’t have a sponsor. Unless I’m called to the Academy, my life will be spent protecting Olivia until she’s mated.”
She glanced at the empty room, then back at Kalvin, the magic in her bones warming as an idea began to brew at the back of her mind. “What if you took Neil’s place at the Academy?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “If only it were so easy. I would need my own sponsor. Unfortunately, I don’t have the same talent as Neil or the fighting skills of a warrior.” He sounded matter-of-fact, but a blush darkened his face.
Morgan grabbed one of the final boxes, and by mutual decision, they began walking down the hall. She knew what it was like to be alone and at the mercy of others. The least she could do was try. “What if I can find you a sponsor?”
The kid fumbled the boxes, blinking his big brown eyes as if stunned. “That’s not how it works.” His voice was thick with repressed emotions.
“Why not?” Morgan glanced around the hall, then dropped her box and shoved it against the wall. “Put your boxes down and follow me.”
Without waiting for him to respond, she navigated the twists and turns of the Academy until she stood outside a familiar door, then waited for Kalvin to catch up. When he came to a stop next to her, his brown eyes wild, his sandy brown hair standing up a little, his chest heaving, she gave him a wicked smile and knocked briskly.
“What do you want?” Taking that as permission to enter, she shoved open the door and stepped across the threshold. She ignored the way Kalvin stood frozen, standing awkwardly in the hall as he peeked into the room with wide eyes.
The MacGregor sat behind a monstrous desk he had somehow managed to cram into his room, the old man barely glancing up when she halted in front of him. The burly warrior was well past his prime, reminding her of a gnarled old grizzly, and as grumpy as one, the past few weeks of inactivity making him more of a caged beast than ever.